Manila, Philippines – The 2 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines procured by the Philippine government arrived in the country on Saturday afternoon, May 8, 2021. These vaccines were developed by Britain’s Oxford-AstraZeneca.
Around 12:49 pm this Saturday, the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses from COVAX facility arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 via Singapore Airlines commercial flight.
TINGNAN: As of 12:49 pm, dumating na sa bansa ang nasa mahigit dalawang milyong doses ng AstraZeneca Vaccine mula sa Covax Facility.
Dadaan ito sa disinfection at ikakarga sa mga cold storage vans papunta sa isang cold storage facility sa Marikina City. |@dzbb @gmanews pic.twitter.com/pfi7tejeBj
— Jhomer Apresto (@jhomer_apresto) May 8, 2021
According to a tweet post of Jhomer Apresto, the shipment is subject for the disinfection before being loaded to trucks and it will be transferred to a cold storage facility in Marikina City.
Present in receiving of the shipment are the Secretary of the Department of Health (DOH), Francisco Duque III, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. chief implementer of the National Task Force against COVID-19 and Secretary Vince Dizon, Deputy Chief Implementer of the National Task Force Against COVID-19.
The AstraZeneca vaccine will serve as a second dose for medical front liners, senior citizens and an individual who already got their first shot of vaccines.
Here is the table showing the number of vaccines delivered in the country from February 2021 to present.
| Date | Name of Vaccines | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 28, 2021 | SinoVac | 600,000 |
| March 24, 2021 | SinoVac | 400,000 |
| March 29, 2021 | SinoVac | 1,000,000 |
| April 11, 2021 | SinoVac | 500,000 |
| April 19, 2021 | AstraZeneca | 525,600 |
| April 22, 2021 | SinoVac | 500,000 |
| April 29, 2021 | SinoVac | 500,000 |
| May 7, 2021 | SinoVac | 1,500,000 |
| May 8, 2021 | AstraZeneca | 2,000,000 |
So far, the Philippine government has received a total of 7,540,600 doses of Covid-19 vaccines. Majority of the vaccines received by the government are SinoVac Vaccines with a total of 5M doses. These vaccines were developed by the Chinese drug-maker Sinovac BioNtech.
Source: ABS-CBN COVID-19 tracker
Since the vaccination rolled out by March 1, 2021, only 320,586 were fully vaccinated and 1,744,649 received their first dose. As of May 4, 2021, the Philippine government has administered a total of 2,065,235 doses so far.
The government is also expecting to receive vaccines from Pfizer-BioTech within this year.
The target numbers of full vaccination by the end of the year are at least 70 million individuals.
See Also: Latest tally of the COVID-19 cases in the Philippines
Efficacy Rates of AstraZeneca Vaccine
According to the official website of AstraZeneca, the efficacy rates are 76% against symptomatic COVID-19, 85% against symptomatic COVID-19 in participants aged 65 years and over and 100% efficacy against severe or critical disease and hospitalization.
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